The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton

One of my favorite types of books are biographies. This book is a classic that I greatly enjoyed.

Who'd think reading about a woman who wrote a book over 150 years ago would be so fascinating? Was I wrong! Isabella (nee Bella Mayson) married Sam Beeton--leaving behind her mother's "blended" family of nearly 21 children. She was the oldest daughter and had done much work around the house and with the children. Sam was a struggling magazine and book publisher. Isabella joined him, mostly out of necessity, and was listed as his editor. In her early 20s she started writing a advice and homemaking column in the The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. She also became very savvy about marketing. As time went on, Sam and Bella had two surviving children, but also numerous stillbirths and miscarriages. Apparently Sam had contacted syphilis before they were married--and Isabelle was never told (common tact with doctors of that Victorian era). She died at age 28, as a result. However, before her early death, she put her knowledge and that of anyone else she could adapt, and cobbled together a 900-page book, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management." Written to the middle class, a growing group, during this Victorian period, they were hungry for advice on the correct behavior. Her readers assumed Mrs. Beeton was a wizened and experienced woman who had experienced proper dinner parties, how to train servants and everything needed about running a home. Author Hughes did a wonderful job of bringing all the facts of this amazing woman's short life--giving us interesting details about a smart women whom she obviously respected, We learn about the society then, religious attitudes, sexual mores, the rise of consumerism, advertising and marketing--and the people (and especially the woman's role). Mrs. Beeton was household then--and still is in England. If you thought you knew abut the Victorian era and the people who populated it, Hughes work might prove you wrong. A very impressive biography and peak that the England of the 1850s and beyond. Armchair Interviews says: Mrs. Beeton lives on in Hughes' book and in the mind of the English.

As someone who is interested in the domestic arts, I had previousely purchased a facsimile of the original Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. When I purused its pages, I remember asking myself, "I wonder what made her such an authority" because there's nothing in the book that tells the reader where or how Mrs. Beeton obtained her knowledge. I knew nothing of the author, other than that she was married to a publisher -- that is until I read this book.... Kathryn Hughes tells the story of Mrs. Beeton's life from beginning to end. It is well researched, readable, and I couldn't help but think of the comparison between how Mrs. Beeton's book contained plagiarized material and how it was alleged that Martha Stewart did the same with some of the recipes in her earlier cook books. So it struck me as odd that Kathryn Hughes missed the obvious comparison, when she did happen to mention other American domestic goddesses like Cheryl Mendelson who wrote "Home Comforts" and even the fictional character, Betty Crocker. Other than this minor omission or oversight, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and am glad it was written.

Thumbing through a hefty copy of "Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management" you form a picture of the author as an authoritative, practical, middle-aged Victorian matron, the very image of respectable domesticity. But except for her practicality, nothing could be further from the truth. Isabella Beeton was dead before she was 30. The book that made her a household name in Britain was published when she was 24. She didn't know much about running a household - with or without servants - and according to her biographer, Kathryn Hughes, she wasn't much interested either. She would no doubt be astonished to hear that her book is still in print almost 150 years later. A young wife with strong organizational skills, Isabella's goal was simply to help keep her husband's publishing business solvent and growing. Hers was the first of a branded series of useful "Beeton Books" for the middle classes, which came to include "Beeton's Illustrated Bible" and "Beeton's Book of Universal Information." That she took to the work is clear - she was correcting proofs on her deathbed at age 28. Immediately after her marriage to Sam Beeton, Isabella threw herself into the publishing business, writing domestic advice columns (on any subject required) for his "Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine." But it wasn't until the birth of her first healthy son (after the death of her first child in infancy and a probable string of miscarriages - Hughes makes the case that Sam infected Isabella with syphilis) that she officially began working full time, appearing at the office and recognized as "Editress." Although Isabella was as methodical and levelheaded as her husband was impulsive and reckless, necessity may not have been her only motive for such unconventional behavior. She may not have known much about running a household, but she knew more than her share about chores and childcare. Growing up, Isabella had been the eldest girl in a blended family of 21 children. A sketch by her mother shows Isabella as a calm presence among the brood, "age 12 going on twenty-five." Isabella emerges from Hughes' lively, engaging, meticulously researched biography as a conventional Victorian girl who accepts her lot in life with reasonable grace. Until along comes an opportunity for escape from domesticity, by instructing others in how to excel at it. But how, you might wonder, does a 20-something author sound authoritative on matters ranging from handling dinner parties for 60 and training servants to trussing a turkey and properly ventilating the home? She steals from her elders, that's how. Though Isabella developed a distinctive voice and demonstrated a formidable talent for organization and assembly, much of her famous book is cobbled directly from her predecessors. But Hughes' book is much more than a biography of an ambitious plagiarist cut off in her budding prime. It's a colorful and energetic exploration of Victorian society in the midst of rapid change. Industrialization had

Mrs Beeton was a woman for our age. Possessed of more money than time, she advised the rising middle class of Victorian England how to cook everything, keep house, garden--all things for which we today turn to Martha. It's delightful to read how the past compares with our present, and also how even in a simpler time one woman with an idea could create one of the first media empires. This thoroughly researched, captivatingly written story is an immersion in the world of Victorian society, one woman's improbable success (achieved before she died in childbirth in her mid-twenties). A real gem that puts our modern obssession with hearth and home in fascinating light.